Save Bewl Water Local Wildlife Site
from development, protect wildlife and natural beauty

Bewl Water Reservoir, owned by Southern Water, is haven for wildlife.  It has incredible biodiversity.  But there’s pressure to develop the site.

Change.org has a petition, asking Southern Water and Wealden Planning to prioritise local wildlife and natural beauty over development

The petition says there are drip fed planning applications for new property developments and “unchecked commercialisation” of the site.  These include a large inflatable waterpark (built without planning, despite local authority notices to do so), laser challenge, sports car meets and advertising to hen and stag dos.

Bewl is classified as a Local Wildlife Site.

It has 472 protected and designated species, including 20 types of dragonflies, damselflies, declining pollinators such as bees and butterflies, small mammals, 9 types of bat, amphibians and reptiles. 171 bird species have been recorded, including an incredible 122,000 waterbirds on a single occasion.  Applications are in the pipeline for it to be designated with international and national protection – these could be too late.

Objections have come from the High Weald AONB, Sussex Ornithological Society, Sussex Wildlife Trust, CPRE, parish councils, ramblers, sailors and rowers

Southern Water has legal duties to protect biodiversity, and public access and the AONB.  But the petition says it is ignoring the views of wildlife charities, present users and locals.

Please sign this petition  to send a clear message to Southern Water and Wealden Planning that wildlife must be protected from development and urbanisation and the countryside must be conserved and enhanced for future generations.

Please sign here

The Hillside Animal Sanctuary near Norwich is home to 4,000 animals. Most of the rescued animals have been saved from the farming industry, but 2,500 horses, ponies, donkeys and mules also call Hillside home. 

As you can imagine, this is an enormous undertaking demanding a lot of resource. 

So why not help them along?  One of the things you could do is to buy a bale of hay for £5 and donate that to Hillside Animal Sanctuary.

Obviously, you don't buy the bale of hay and trot off to Hillside with it in your car decorated with a piece of red ribbon - it's all much easier than that. You "buy" it online. 

It would make a great gift both for the horses and ponies, donkeys and mules at Hillside but also for any animal lover as a Secret Santa or stocking filler. 

Give a Gift in Lieu to support the animals at the sanctuary 

You could also choose a Gift a Sack of Grass Nuts for £5.00, or Feed a Rescue Dog for a week (£10) or Give a Bale of Straw for bedding (that's £15) or donate £5 towards the Hillside Carrot Appeal; a staggering 29 tonnes of carrots are regularly delivered to Hillside during the winter to help feed the 4000 rescued animals at the Sanctuary.  That's an awful lot of carrot!

You could also adopt an anmal such as Beauty the Sheep as a gift.
Or how about Doris the duck, or Henrietta the ex-battery hen,
or alpacas Inti and Lupi, or Tessa turkey or...
there are lots to choose from!  Click here to see!
(Minimum donation £10 for a year's adoption)

Visit Hillside Animal Sanctuary's online shop here to find out about the gifts mentioned above.  They've also got Christmas cards, adoption gifts, cards, notelets, gifts for donkey lovers - so lots to choose from.

 Today, the Daily Express ran a story about a monkey sanctuary in Cornwall that is in desperate need of support.

The sanctuary is called Wild Futures.  It’s home to 40 monkeys who have been rescued from neglect and abuse from the UK’s primate pet trade.  You can find out more about Wild Futures here

It is desperately trying to raise funds to stay open.  Monthly costs are now nearly £50,000 and it is rapidly approaching a situation where, if they don’t act now, then in a few months they won’t have enough funds to continue.

The charity was founded in 1964 and it is hoping their appeal will work.  Then they can focus on a long term strategy to increase their income again and look at other ways to raise funds. Costs have gone up, such as their food and energy – they have to keep the indoor enclosures at 20C degrees for the monkeys year round.

So, ways to help Wild Futures in Cornwall:

Adopt a monkey, either for yourself or as a gift for the monkey or animal lover in your life.  You can choose from Capuchin monkeys, Woolly monkeys, Marmoset monkeys, Long-Tailed Macaques.  Good luck choosing, they all look adorable

Adoptions are one ways to support Wild Futures - this is Elvis
(and no, you can't take Elvis home!)

Check out their wish-list – is there anything you can help with? There are things on there you wouldn’t necessarily think of, such as Kong toys (all sizes), tennis balls and footballs

Support their campaign to end the keeping and trade of primates as pets. They’ve got a petition you can sign

Make a one-off or monthly donation

Do a fundraiser for them

You could "buy" the monkeys something, such as grapes - find out more here
They start at £5.00

Buy something from the monkeys for Wild Futures’ online shop – e.g. medicines, apples, grapes, enrichment toys, nuts vegetables – there’s lots to choose from.  They’ve got soft toys, too (not for the monkeys, they are for humans).

Treat yourself to their Keeper for the Day experience

Volunteer!

Spread the word

A good start is to swing over to their website to find out more.

All images ©Wild Futures